


Stitches

by JaceRMontague



Series: 30k in 30 days [20]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Blood and Injury, F/F, So be warned, but warning you anyway, fluff kinda, not graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 19:18:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8634808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaceRMontague/pseuds/JaceRMontague
Summary: Regina comes home to find the mansion empty but then she finds blood in the kitchen and her wife refuses to go to the hospital.





	

Regina got home from work. She pulled her heels off as soon as she was in the mansion and rested against the door. She shut her eyes and took a breath of relief now that her shoes were off. Now she was home she could be herself – the self she was with her family – the self that wore stolen hoodies from Emma and the trainers that Henry had outgrown. She smiled at the fact that she was home for the weekend, she couldn't wait to spend it with her wife. It was then that she realised that she couldn’t actually hear anything in the house. She knew Henry was away at Nick's for the weekend but normally she would have been able to hear Emma, the blonde normally pacing about the house or burning food or singing along to music as it blasted across the entire house’s sound system.

Regina picked up her shoes from where she had discarded them and walked up the stairs, her phone in hand as she texted the blonde wondering where Emma could be. If Emma was going to be held up in the station or had gone out on patrol or was on a call-out she’d always send Regina a quick text to let her wife know where she was, but this time she hadn’t and Regina was slightly worried.

After Regina had changed she had decided enough time had passed to warrant a phone call. She knew that she was being overprotective – in fact this had been one of the things that she and Emma had had one of their biggest arguments to date about – but she was really quite concerned and so, as she walked back down the stairs, she pressed the dial button.

Music – Emma’s ringtone – began blaring through the house's sound system. Regina realised that Emma had either been home and had rushed out or was still I here – somewhere. That was the one thing she hated about Emma’s insistence to connect her phone to the speakers; the phone rang everywhere. Regina wasn’t able to pinpoint where the phone actually was.

Regina got to the bottom of the stairs and began walking towards the kitchen; to find Emma you had to start with the most likely place food would be and work backwards. It was logic.

Regina got to the kitchen and found the ingredients for a sandwich on the countertop. As well as a glass of water that had been knocked down. She rolled her eyes at the mess Emma had left behind her and moved to clean up after her wife.

Then she felt her heart drop.

The counter, the bread and the knife – the sharpest knife in the house - had blood on them. A lot of blood. The amount of blood on the counter looked like something from a horror film.

Regina rushed out of the kitchen to search for her wife.

‘Emma?!’ Regina shouted through the house. “Em?”

Regina checked every room on the ground floor and found each of them empty. She went back up the stairs checking every room, starting at the bathroom at the end of the hallway and working her way back towards the bedroom she and Emma shared. She slumped down on the bed, phone clasped in her hand about to ring the hospital to see if Emma was there.

“Shit, shit, shit.” She heard from the other side of the ensuite door.

Regina shot up and rushed into the bathroom.

There she found Emma, sitting on the bathroom floor shirtless, her hand wrapped in the tank top that Emma had been wearing when she left for work that morning.

“What the?” Regina started as she walked further into the room and sat beside Emma on the cold tiles.

She noted how pale Emma was looking and just how much blood had sodden the now red tank top Emma was clutching with her uninjured hand.

“I cut myself.” Emma said simply with a shrug.

“Emma. The amount of blood downstairs looks as if you’ve severed your arm.” Regina said softly as she placed one hand on the blonde’s wrist and the other atop of the hand that Emma was using to apply pressure to the injury.

“Let me see.” She said. Emma pulled her blood covered hand from between the shirt and Regina’s hand.

Regina peeled back the material and winced at the immense amount of blood on that had soaked the shirt and was pooling to the point that Regina couldn’t tell exactly where the injury was. 

She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around Emma’s hand before helping the blonde stand up, she could tell how faint Emma was feeling from the way the blonde swayed into her side. Regina held Emma close with one hand wrapped around the blonde’s waist and used the other was used to try to help her wife.

Regina unwrapped the towel again and ran cold water over Emma’s hand.

“Sorry.” She whispered when she heard Emma hiss at the feeling of water as it hit her hand.

Regina saw the extent of the wound. It was deep enough that it would need stitches and long enough that it went almost completely across Emma’s palm.

“you’ll need stitches.” Regina said, her voice firm.

“I’m not going to the hospital”

“ _Em_.”

“I’m _not._ ” Emma repeated. Her voice firm despite how shaky she had become as she used Regina as support to stay upright.

“Fine.” Regina sighed. “I’ll do it.”

“What do you mean, you’ll do it?”

“I mean, Emma. I’m going to stitch your hand up.”

“Do you even know how to do it?”

“Of course I do.” Regina replied with a flat tone, as if this is something that Emma should know.

Regina turned the tap off and pressed the towel back against the wound. She helped Emma sit on the top of the toilet and disappeared.

She returned after a minute or two with the first aid kit and a bottle of pure vodka.

She uncapped the bottle and passed it to Emma.

“Drink.”

“What?”

“Want me to stitch your hand up while your sober?” Regina asked with an arched eyebrow.

Emma contemplated it for a second and then took a large gulp from the bottle.

Regina passed Emma a clean towel to bite down on and made sure Emma was looking away before she poured some antiseptic over Emma’s hand.

“OW! WHAT THE _FUCK_?!” Emma shouted though her voice was muffled by the towel she had clamped between her teeth.

“Antiseptic. Would you rather I force you to the hospital?”

Emma glared for a moment before taking the towel out of her mouth, taking another mouthful of vodka, biting back down on the towel and shutting her eyes, tilting her head towards the ceiling.

“Thought so” Regina muttered as she pulled a needle from the first aid kit and began stitching Emma’s hand up.

Once Regina had finished she looked up and saw that the colour had begun to return to her wife’s face, whether it was from the pain, the trying not to scream or the alcohol, Regina wasn’t sure.

Regina put the first aid kit away and took the towel Emma had been biting, then gathered the blood-stained towel and tank shirt and threw them in the wash basket. She knew they’d end up in the bin but for now at least they weren’t staining the white marble tiles.

Once she had cleared up she helped Emma back into their bedroom helping her sit on the bed, the blonde still not steady on her feet.

Regina took the vodka bottle out of the blonde’s hand and placed it on top of the drawers before sitting on the bed beside Emma and pulling her close, sighing contentedly when she felt Emma’s head rest against her shoulder.

She didn’t want to admit it but when she had seen the knife and the sheer amount of blood she thought that she would be spending the night at a hospital bedside. Or worse.

Regina thought through the last hour and realised that she had been in the bedroom when she had first come home from work.

“Emma. When I was in here earlier why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wouldn’t want a delicate, highborn lady such as yourself overcome by the sight of blood.” Emma said, trying to be funny though she didn’t have the strength in her voice to deliver the sentence with the conviction she had wanted.

“I’m a battle-mage. I went to war at age 16.” Regina replied without a thought

“Started a war at age 16, more like” Emma shot back.

Regina gave Emma a playful back hander against the blonde’s shoulder and laughed.

“Too right.” Regina laughed.

Emma looked down at her hand, seeing the stitches in her hand for the first time since Regina had tied off the thread.

“Impressive.” She mused, looking closely at the neat row of stitches.

“I still think you should’ve gone to the hospital about it.”

“I think we both knew that that wasn’t going to happen” Emma said quietly as she moved her head from Regina’s shoulder and lay down across the middle of the bed, using her good arm to pull Regina down beside her. She wrapped an arm around Regina’s stomach and pulled the brunette close.

“I’m sorry about the mess downstairs.” Emma mumbled.

“Don’t worry about it. As long as it’s clean before Henry comes home tomorrow it’s okay. How did you even manage to do that much damage making a sandwich?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure.” Emma admitted, making Regina laugh.

Regina wrapped an arm around Emma’s waist and pulled her close. 

“You’re an idiot” she sighed.

“Yes, but I’m _your_ idiot.” Emma replied with a grin.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry i missed another day. I will catch up at one point or another but honestly I was so ill yesterday I was considering going to hospital myself but i'm pretty much better and it's all good and I'm going to catch up with the three days i've missed.
> 
> Your comments and kudos are always appreciated and I'm going to spend saturday going through my inbox and replying to everyone because i've been neglecting replies.
> 
> I hope you're all good (or at the very least, better than the sorry state I was in yesterday)


End file.
